= A Serial Introduction Part 2 =Winners of ITU-AJ Encouragement Awards 2022
In May every year, The ITU Association of Japan (ITU-AJ) proudly presents ITU-AJ Encouragement Awards to people who have madeoutstanding contributions in the field of international standardization and have helped in the ongoing development of ICT.
These Awards are also an embodiment of our sincere desire to encourage further contributions from these individuals in the future.
If you happen to run into these winners at another meeting in the future, please say hello to them.
But first, as part of the introductory series of Award Winners, allow us to introduce some of those remarkable winners.

Yuichi Kumaki

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation
http://www.ntt-east.co.jp/en/
Fields of activity: G lobal business development

Technical support for optical access at the PT Telkom Group in Indonesia
It is a great honor to receive this prestigious encouragement
award from the ITU Association of Japan at this time. I would
like to express deep gratitude to all who lent their guidance andencouragement, leading to this award.
I have worked with PT Telekom Indonesia since 2010. Duringthat time, I was involved in planning and executing various
technology exchange efforts, mainly related to optical access.
Beyond simply sharing procedures and specifications fromthe experience and know-how of NTT East, I also worked
carefully to build their understanding of why particular methods
or specifications were adopted, history, and background from eachgeneration, to build a trust relationship. Then, since 2016 and at
the request of PT Telekom, we have operated a paid technicalsupport consulting project. In this technical support activity, we

first carefully explain why the methods and tools we introduce areneeded, so that they will adopt them, and then, through repeateddiscussion with local members, select methods and componentsthat can be procured locally, tuning them to the local environment
as much as possible. This sort of effort has been well accepted,
and we are currently providing support to train technicians for
deploying the methods we have proposed throughout the country.
To be involved in projects in an environment that is completely
different from Japan, and to work with many local team members
has been an irreplaceable experience for me. I was able to see
energetic, cheerful and enjoyable workplaces in Indonesia with
my own eyes and to learn many things. I would like to continue
to work, contributing to the expansion of telecommunications inIndonesia in the future.

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Kazuhiro Kumamaru

Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK)kumamaru.k-hy@nhk.or.jp https://www.nhk.or.jp/corporateinfo/
Fields of activity: ITU-R SG4, SG6

Activities in ITU-R
It is an honor and a great pleasure to receive this ITU-AJ
Encouragement Award. I would like to express my sincere
gratitude to the ITU-AJ and all the others for their guidance andsupport.
I first participated in ITU-R activities at the ITU-R SG4(Satellite Services) meeting in 2017. Since 2020, I have been
actively involved in SG6 (Broadcasting Service), contributing totechnical studies and standardizing satellite broadcasting andbroadcasting technology. This award recognizes work I have donein various areas as follows.
I contributed to revision of the recommendation (BT.1871)
outlining the requirements and operational characteristics ofradio systems necessary for broadcasting services, such as wirelessmicrophones. In particular, I compiled information on frequenciesof wireless microphones used by Japanese broadcasters and added
the data to the recommendation. I hope that this revision will leadto harmonization of frequencies used by wireless microphones
both regionally and globally. In compiling this information, I
received helpful support from the Ministry of Internal Affairs andSusumu Saito

Communications (MIC), the Japan Commercial Broadcasters
Association (JBA), the Association of Radio Industries andBusinesses (ARIB) and others.
Another part of my work pertains to a new report (BO.2497)
on the criteria for sharing broadcast satellite frequencies. The
report, proposed by NHK/B-SAT, summarizes the resultsof technical studies reviewing possible changes to satellite
coordination procedures. This was for an agenda item at theWorld Radio Communication Conference (WRC-19) in 2019.
The contents are also relevant to Japan's BS left-handed circularlypolarized frequencies registered for 4K/8K satellite broadcastingin 2016. There were several problems, and discussions among
concerned parties continued until the final plenary meeting.
Ultimately, we reached a mutual agreement. I hope that this reportwill promote the stable use of frequencies for 4K/8K satellite
broadcasting in the future.
I hope to continue utilizing my experience with ITU-R andcontributing to further development in the broadcasting industry.

Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK)https://www.nhk.or.jp/corporateinfo/
Fields of activity: ITU-R SG4, SG6, Broadcasting Service, Satellite Broadcasting

Activities related to broadcasting services
I would like to offer my sincere thanks for this ITU
Association of Japan Encouragement Award at this time. I would
also like to offer thanks to all those who have provided theirguidance.
I have participated in ITU-R activities since 2010, protecting
satellite broadcasting operations and requesting new satellite
broadcast frequencies from ITU-R as needed for advanced satellite
broadcasting.
I currently participate in SG4 for satellite services, SG6
for broadcasting services, and SG5 for terrestrial services. In
SG6, I participated in discussions of sharing and compatibility
studies between broadcasting and mobile service, and contributed

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to creation of a new recommendation (BT.2136). In SG4, I
contributed to creation of a new report (BO.2497) clarifying
relationships among satellite frequency sharing criteria(PFD and EPM criteria). In SG5, I contributed revisions torecommendations M.1824 -1 and F.1777-2, adding information on
Japanese standards for 4K and 8K FPUs.
I hope to continue contributing to maintaining and expanding
the broadcasting services built by my predecessors, in areas
including study of sharing between broadcasting and otherbusinesses and standardization work to advance broadcasting
further in the future.

Hidekazu Shimodaira

NTT DOCOMO, INC.
https://www.docomo.ne.jp/english/
Fields of activity: 3 GPP/O-RAN

Contribution to standardization through development of commercialequipment
I am very honored to receive this prestigious ITU Associationof Japan Encouragement Award. I would like to express sincere
gratitude to everyone at the ITU-AJ and others involved.
Since I first joined NTT DOCOMO, I have been involvedin study of commercial equipment specifications and technology
for interconnection interfaces in cross-vendor configurations.
Originally it was just commercial equipment specifications, but I
gained recognition for my knowledge of 3GPP standards and theclarity of technical elements in interconnection interfaces for crossvendor configurations, and have been doing standardization workwith 3GPP since October, 2018, and with the O-RAN Alliancesince October, 2020.
At 3GPP, I initially worked on standardization of functions
such as positioning in RAN1, but now I am working on overall

Hiroki Takeda

standardization of Radio Resource Management (RRM)
functions in RAN4. In O-RAN standardization, I worked on a
proposal for a standard function that will enable more flexible useof Fronthaul Multiplexer in 5G. In both of these standardization
activities, I worked to bring a perspective of commercial
equipment development to the standardization process. InFY2022, study for 5G Advanced began, and I have been given
the role of joint-rapporteur (responsible for summarizing results ofdiscussion) for a Work Item studying extended functions for NonTerrestrial Networks (NTN). The rapporteur’s abilities can affectwhether study of a 3GPP specification can complete on schedulewith agreement from all parties, so I will continue to work hard toensure that our study completes as planned.

KDDI CORPORATION
https://www.kddi.com/english/
Fields of activity: 3
 GPP RAN Plenary and RAN2/3 standardization

3GPP RAN Plenary and RAN2/3 Standardization Activities
To begin with, I would like to say that I am sincerely thankful
on receiving an ITU-AJ Encouragement Award. I would also
like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to all concerned for theirguidance and support in past activities.
I have been participating in 3GPP RAN standardization
activities for about nine years since 2013 and have submitted avariety of proposals at RAN Plenary meetings. These includea work-item proposal on the standardization of LTE carrier
aggregation and a proposal for early standardization of a 5G NSA(Non-Stand Alone) system (technology for providing 5G usingthe existing LTE network) toward the launch of commercial
services in 2020. Furthermore, in RAN2/3, I have submitted
contributions and have been involved in drafting standards for
LTE functional extensions for drones and for diverse technologies
such as RAN slicing by holding discussions with engineers fromvarious companies. I have also served as a joint Rapporter withrepresentatives of overseas operators and vendors for study items in5G Technology Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) toward abase-station wireless backhaul.
It was not an infrequent occurrence at these standardization
discussions for my opinion to clash with those of others, but
despite these difficult situations, I came to learn the importanceof respecting the ideas of others and to steer discussions toward
a common objective. Additionally, given that LTE and 5G aretechnologies used widely by people around the world, I take great
pride in my involvement in drafting these technical standards.
Going forward, I would like to make an even greater effort
to contribute to the further development of the communicationsindustry by applying my expertise and experience to date.

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